Mike, it's interesting how much effort people will go to to save a little bit of money. Mauricio, who doesn't care much about cost, would be amazed how many people will open lots of accounts to keep getting a free dose of Wi-Fi. You misunderstood though. It's not 10 minutes free each time you connect. It's 10 minutes when you create an account, which requires paying money:

mike: It looks to me the best thing about Zenbu is you get 10 minutes free each time you connect, enough time to check your email, get directions or read some news without ever having to pay.

For now though I'll stick with free Telecom wifi for xtra broadband customers and vodafone 3g for on the road :)

We did some testing to see how to handle the first free data and time. There's not just free time, there are free megabytes too. I forgot to mention that in the comparison with Tomizone. It's not of much value, but it's nice to have available for some people.

We reduced the amount of free data to see just how much trouble people would go to to get a freebie. It's quite a bit of trouble. I think most people are not like Mauricio, uninterested in the cost.

Look at your post for example, loving the free Telecom Wi-Fi. I have enjoyed using it too. It's nice not to be burning up $8 an hour to check a few emails. I think most people are like you and me, rather than Mauricio [in terms of worrying about the cost].

If you want good mobile phone 3G service, you should be using Telecom's EV-DO. It's faster than Vodafone's W-CDMA and also offers much more coverage, as does the regular Telecom cellular service.

Telecom enjoys lower royalties on phones than does Vodafone. Royalties on W-CDMA run at around 12% of the wholesale price of handsets. For CDMA2000, it averages about 4%. So Telecom has some intrinsic advantages over Vodafone. But on the other hand, there are aspects of GSM operation such as SIMs and more roaming internationally, which make GSM more attractive.

MauriceWinn: We reduced the amount of free data to see just how much trouble people would go to to get a freebie. It's quite a bit of trouble. I think most people are not like Mauricio, uninterested in the cost.

Look at your post for example, loving the free Telecom Wi-Fi. I have enjoyed using it too. It's nice not to be burning up $8 an hour to check a few emails. I think most people are like you and me, rather than Mauricio [in terms of worrying about the cost].

Wrong. How wrong. It's about the cost and benefit. When I arrived in Las Vegas a couple of years ago I discovered the apartment didn't have Internet. I had to work so I used GPRS/3G.

Next morning I found out you can use Wi-Fi at the McDonald's downstairs for US$ 1.50/hour. Of course I started using that.

The cost of the connection was proporational to the benefits. I wasn't going out at 10pm in Las Vegas to find a hotspot.

Oh, sorry I misunderstood. Some people really are indifferent to costs. Just a couple of weeks ago, a friend at Mount Maunganui was sitting in his apartment using his Telecom EV-DO service with his notebook computer, oblivious that he could get a Zenbu router [or any router] and have faster ADSL internet at much lower cost. He doesn't use his computer when out and about. The price is so low for the Telecom service that he doesn't care. But faster is better. Cheaper at the same time won't be a problem.

freitasm: Wrong. How wrong. It's about the cost and benefit. When I arrived in Las Vegas a couple of years ago I discovered the apartment didn't have Internet. I had to work so I used GPRS/3G.

Next morning I found out you can use Wi-Fi at the McDonald's downstairs for US$ 1.50/hour. Of course I started using that.

The cost of the connection was proporational to the benefits. I wasn't going out at 10pm in Las Vegas to find a hotspot.

Are you with me now?

A year ago, I hiked 4 kilometres to Uzes [in France] to use a cybercafe with my notebook computer because there was no service [that I knew of] in Saint Quentin La Poterie. It was a nice walk [I could have taken the car] and makes a good story for a few decades from now to regale grandchildren with, "Yesss, in the old days, I walked barefoot 3 miles in snow to school and they beat us with stock whips if we didn't sit up straight. We had to cart 2 kilogram slabs of electronics kilometres to use cyberspace and it would take ages to get a picture to come through."

I have paid US$20 a day to use Wi-Fi in a hotel lobby when that was the choice and I needed service.

Once prices get below our "hourly rate" we become increasingly indifferent to the costs and convenience matters more [and other quality issues]. If we are $500 an hour lawyers, we don't worry much about $30 an hour services. If we are $20 an hour people, we do.

It's 30c a megabyte [near enough] for users, but how much does it cost for zone operators to offer the service? I couldn't find any information on the CafeNET site. http://www.cafenet.co.nz/ Zenbu is 10c a megabyte and costs zone operators only $249 to buy a router [plus they have their ADSL normal costs].

Vector charges a LOT for hooking into their fibre [or did 15 months ago when we [Zenbu] asked them how much it would cost to connect to their fibre for an Auckland metropolitan Wi-Fi zone - they have typical telecom industry ideas on how much things should cost, which is an arm and a leg]. Vector is the CafeNET company in Auckland so I guess they have high costs built in and expect zone operators to pay them heaps.

I am locking this discussion because it's way off topic now. The thread was created to post about the CafeNet expansion in Auckland, not to discuss one solution over another or to brain wash people. If needed to there's another discussion on this already.